This invention relates to an apparatus for stripping leaves from a stalk of cured tobacco and separating the leaves into stalk position or grade.
Certain varieties of tobacco such as burley, fire-cured, Maryland, sun-cured and the like are cured wth the leaves remaining on the stalk. When harvesting this type of tobacco, the entire stalk is cut near the bottom and the butt end of the stalk is pierced by a handling stick or string and hung upside down in a curing barn or shed. After the tobacco is cured, sometimes by the addition of heat, moisture is added back to the leaves to prevent them from shattering during handling. The leaves are then removed from the stalk.
Normally, the leaves of the stalk-cured tobacco are stripped from the stalk by hand. The workman would remove all of the leaves of one grade (stalk position) and stack each grade in separate piles. Although there have been numerous attempts to develop methods and apparatus which will reduce the time and labor for this task, the majority of stalk cured tobacco is still stripped by hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,985 to Anderson illustrates one apparatus which has been developed. This device still requires the leaves to be removed by hand but provides a frame with rotatable containers or bins so that the workman at each work station can deposit leaves of the same grade in a particular bin.
Another type of tobacco stripper and classifier is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,939,036 to Matte. In this stripper the tobacco leaf stalk is secured to rotating heads and a knife is moved along the stalk as it rotates to sever the leaves from the stalk. The leaves fall on a conveyor directly below the rotating stalks generally in their stalk position and, thus, are graded. In this device, the stalk must be stiff, otherwise, when it rotates, the knife will not trim the leaves.
Other types of apparatus have been used which simply strip the leaves from the stalk as the stalks are drawn through an orifice or adjustable opening of some type. These types of stripper normally do not have a method of classifying or grading the leaves other than by hand.